Samuel Shen and Eduardo Baptista
China’s Unitree unveiled a new high-speed robot it dubbed “Superman”, days before becoming the first general-purpose robotics company to list on mainland China’s stock market.
Unitree, the world’s biggest humanoid-robot maker by sales, will start trading in Shanghai on Wednesday after raising 6.1 billion yuan ($1.3 billion) in an initial public offering last week.
The company, based in the eastern Chinese tech hub of Hangzhou, said it developed the new robot in just over three months and that it surpasses the “standing high jump and running speed records of all humans around the world”. It achieved a standing jump of two metres and reached a top speed of 12.66 metres per second, faster than the top speed recorded by Usain Bolt (12.42 metres per second) during his world-record setting 100 metres run in 2009.
The Shanghai debut coincides with the opening of the World Robot Conference in Beijing, adding to investor attention on a company whose humanoid robots have drawn global notice for running, dancing and performing martial arts.
The IPO was more than 8000 times oversubscribed by retail investors, a record for Shanghai’s tech-focused STAR Market.
In a social-media post last week, Unitree said it had cumulatively produced and delivered about 18,000 bipedal humanoid robots across multiple models as of July.
Unitree said the robot remained a work in progress and could be improved further in coming months.
Founder Wang Xingxing gained national prominence after securing a front-row seat at a summit hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping for leading technology entrepreneurs last year.
The start-up is also backed by some of China’s most influential technology companies including Tencent, Alibaba and DeepSeek.
Ahead of Unitree’s Shanghai listing, derivative trading in offshore markets has pointed to a strong debut.
Its shares may also benefit from a broader recovery in Chinese technology stocks following last month’s sell-off.
Robotics companies are expected to form the next wave of technology IPOs in China, following a string of debuts by companies along the artificial intelligence supply chain, and as Beijing makes humanoid robots a strategic priority.
Robotera, a Chinese robotics start-up backed by HSG and CDH Investments, is reportedly planning an initial public offering in Hong Kong.
Beijing Robot Era Technology Co., as the company is formally known, is working with advisers on the share sale, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information. It could seek to raise $US800 million to $US1 billion ($1.12 billion-$1.4 billion) in the IPO, one of the people said.
The STAR50 Index has rebounded about 15 per cent from a three-month low hit in early August.
Reuters, wires
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